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Introduction
In view of constant increase in the cost of concentrate feed ingredients and their limited
availability, green fodder is considered an economical source of nutrients for the dairy animals.
While increase in green fodder production per hectare of land has been emphasised, it is
equally important to conserve green fodder to ensure regular supply for feeding animals,
especially during the lean periods. Conserving green fodder in the form of silage is one of
the best options available to ensure regular supply of quality fodder through different seasons
of the year.
What is Silage?
Silage is the conserved green fodder having moisture content in the range of 65 to 70
per cent. Fodder crops rich in soluble carbohydrates are incubated after chaffing for 45-50
days under anaerobic conditions. Sugars present in the fodder are converted to lactic acid,
which acts as a preservative and a good source of readily fermentable sugars for the rumen
microbes. Under proper storage condition, silage can be stored even up to two years. Good
quality silage should not have any butyric acid, which gives off flavour to silage. If proper
anaerobic conditions are not maintained, silage produced would have butyric acid content
in it.
Crops suitable for silage making
The fodder crops, such as maize, sorghum, oats, pearl millet, and hybrid napier rich in soluble
carbohydrates
are most suitable for fodder ensiling. Quality of silage can be improved with the
use of suitable additives such as molasses, urea, salt, formic acid etc.
Infrastructure required
1. Silo – Surface or trench.
2. Farm machinery like tractor, trailer, fodder harvester & power chaff cutter.
To construct surface silo for large farmers/community silage making, estimated investment would
be about
`
12.00 lakh to preserve about 100 MT of green fodder. The cost of fodder harvester/
chopper would be
`
1.50 lakh approximately.
For medium class farmers 5-7 MT surface silos (manually pressed) would cost around
`
25000
and another
`
25000 for the chaff cutter.
Procedure of silage making
• Construct a surface/trench silo (silage storage structure). One cubic meter space / silo can
store 500-600 kg of green fodder.
• Harvest the crop at 30-35 per cent dry matter (DM) stage.
• Wilt the harvested fodder to bring down DM to 30-35 per cent, if required.
• Chop the fodder into small pieces of 2-3 cm size.
• Fill the chopped fodder into the silo.
• Press the chopped fodder in the silo layer by layer of 30-45 cm.
• Filling and pressing should be completed as fast as possible.
• Use additives during filling of fodder in the silo, if required.
• After filling and pressing, seal the silo with thick polyethylene sheet.